When Fox‘s new detective drama Murder in a Small Town premieres in September, it will include a dedication to the late Donald Sutherland, who died on June 20. Not only because his son, Rossif Sutherland, is the star of the series, but because Donald himself tried to get the books on which this series is based adapted into a movie decades prior. Rossif was completely unaware of his father’s connection to the story until after he was already offered the lead role.
Murder in a Small Town is an adaptation of LR Wright’s Karl Alberg book series (there are nine novels total). Getting the Canada-set books adapted for the screen was a passion project for Donald for years, writer Ian Weir told Deadline. The actor first learned of the story when reading Weir’s script for the film, which prompted him to read the books. He fell in love with them immediately and stayed invested in getting them adapted. He wanted to play George, the prime suspect in the first book, titled The Suspect. (TV Insider exclusively debuted the Murder in a Small Town trailer on August 21. See below.)
Two years ago, and almost three decades after Donald first became interested, the screenplay was read by former USA Network president Jeff Wachtel, and Donald was still attached to play that character. Wachtel was launching his production company, Future Shack, at the time.
Fox took on the story from Future Shack, part of its appeal being that it was a Canadian production and could therefore film during the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Fox wanted three movies at first but then ordered it to series with an eight-episode first season instead. The screenplay for the two-hour movie became the first episode. It will be 90 minutes for U.S. audiences, with the two-hour version being available internationally. Rossif didn’t have to participate in callbacks as usual during this audition process.
Murder in a Small Town stars Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk (Fox)
“It was just another audition in the beginning,” Rossif told Deadline. “I had played a bunch of detectives, and I was quite reluctant at first, but the material was nice. It was a Zoom audition, and I’m not particularly good with those, but I just told my son to be brave and do things that scare him. So I followed my own advice, and I did the audition.”
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Rossif was offered the role of Karl Alberg two weeks after his audition for Wachtel’s production company. “It was unlike any audition that I’ve been on, because usually it’s a circus of callbacks. But here were these people who saw that audition and saw in me, trusted in me the actor to play that part,” he said. That’s when he told his dad about the project.
“I described his character to him, this detective who wasn’t going about doing his job with the tropes of intimidating people with his badge, his gun, his uniform, but instead got to get the truth out of people with his humanity, he’s somebody who wears his heart on his sleeve, and he’s not possessed by demons,” Rossif said. “When I said that to my dad, he asked me what the project was, with some excitement. I said it was this thing called the Alberg series.”
“It‘s then I found out that he was all too familiar with those books because 30 years ago was when the journey began for him of trying to get a movie version off the ground,” he continued. “He befriended [producer] Nick Orchard and Ian Weir, the writer, and they tried to get it produced. Unfortunately, it never happened.”
Weir is a writer and executive producer for the Fox series. He told Deadline that Donald helped develop the George viewers will see onscreen this fall. Wachtel said that Donald was still going to play George, but his age and health prevented that from happening.
“Now, Donald got older, and even though [George] was a guest role, it’s a significant guest role,” Wachtel said. “His health was failing, and so he had to withdraw from the project, but we loved it anyway.” James Cromwell plays the character instead, but Donald was still going to make a cameo appearance as the man who’s murdered at the beginning of the series premiere, but the actor’s declining health impeded. “He couldn’t make the trip,” Wachtel said.
Rossif said he booked the role without auditioning for producers, which was unusual for him, and that it’s a “romantic idea” that Donald’s son should play the lead of a story he so loved. Rossif’s brother, Kiefer Sutherland, is also one of Fox’s biggest alums, as the star of 24.
“I don’t know how much nepotism played into this, I have no idea,” Rossif said. “Certainly they had a relationship with my father, so the romantic idea that I would star instead of him, I’m sure it was quite seductive to them.”
“Listen, I’m thankful for it, for it all, and as far as nepotism goes, if nepotism is to get to do something because of somebody in your family, then my entire career has been nepotism. I wouldn’t be an actor if it weren’t for my dad, I wouldn’t have gone down this road.” he continued. “He’s the one who saw in me something that I hadn’t growing up; he saw somebody who belonged in that family of his that he left our family to go be with that troupe of actors, that troupe of storytellers.”
This is one of those moments where nepotism is incredibly endearing.
Murder in a Small Town, Series Premiere, Tuesday, September 24, 9/8c, Fox
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